The history of one of the best twin stick shoot em ups Of all time Home conversion footage is courtesy of Gaming History Source - This is not included in the video due to a technical error. Please visit my Patreon at / pdbowl
Eugene Jarvis also worked with Housemarque on the excellent Nex Machina. It was even code named "the Jarvis project" internally during development. His new studio developed the new Switch title, Crusin' Blast. Legit legend.
I always felt the SNES version had a superior difficulty curve and sound compared to the arcade version, making it the best version in existence. Great game either way.
the soundfont for music is a downgrade for me, the piano is overused and isn't amazing on most snes games, and the bass feels kinda shallow. although at least the snes version can handle multiple sounds going on without sacrificing the music's quality
I remember renting this on the nes a few days before I got my genesis for Christmas (1992). I was actually disappointed that I was upgrading because I wanted to keep playing smash tv. Playing this with a friend is so much fun. It’s fast and chaotic, and it keeps you really invested in what’s taking place on-screen.
There is also an arcade-perfect port of this on the original Playstation. The game is called "Arcade Party Pak." It was a compilation of 6 different games, one of which was Smash TV. If you have a PS1 Controller with analogue sticks, it also has perfect faithfulness to the original arcade controls, as the two analogue sticks function as the two joysticks from the cabinet.
One of my arcade machines is a Golden Tee, but it's a conversion of a Midway cabinet. I guess someone put black vinyl on the sides to cover the side art, but you can clearly see under it, it used to be a smash tv. The silhouette is still there. Great vid.
I had the Midway Arcade Classics collection on the Xbox. I enjoyed Smash TV, but I played TONNES of hours of Robotron 2084. Robotron just had so much more of a "just one more turn" hook!
Nope. It pretty much was conceived by Robert Sheckley and his short story "The Prize of Peril" from 1960. This story was turned into a german movie called "Das Millionenspiel" in 1970 and when you watch it, you'll quickly notice, that Running Man really is just a cheap hollywood knock off. Also in 1970 there as basically no private television, no reality tv and the movie predicted all of that shockingly accurate. Also, the movie was so convincingly done, that the TV station showing it received thousands of phone calls and letters, both of people being completely pissed off and angry that a "manhunt" was shown on TV, but also from people, who wanted to be contestants of the show.
Now this is a game I was, and still am, in love with. I was mesmerized by this game in the arcades, I got the NES version and loved it even though it wasn't perfect. Then I got the SNES version and played it more than probably anyone else ever has. I would play the SNES version over and over and over almost on a daily basis. I loved this game so much. On the rare occasion I see this arcade cabinet anywhere, I always have to stop and play it. I still say the quotes from this game even to this day. I have so many memories from playing this.
It's really sad that there weren't many twin stick shooters in the arcades back then. Robotron, Smash TV, and Total Carnage are the only ones I can think of, and it's a damn shame because it's really the perfect control scheme for an overhead shooter.
Dude, the SNES WAS ALRIGHT port but the older NES allowed for something I had never seen before on the NES. I dunno if it was possible with like a four way adapter but if you played solo, used both Player 1 & 2 controllers, you could move the player character using controller 1 but use the controller 2 D-Pad to aim and shoot. Yea, it was wonky as all "I'd buy that for a dollar" but yea it was kinda nice if you had two NES Advantage arcade stick type controllers, then you could do what the arcade did, just, I didn't have two of those ... so instead I used rubber ands to hold two regular rectangular NES controllers together, and hurt the heck out of my hands, rubbing that DPad to death. Big money, big prizes, and a big blister,
The super Nintendo version was almost arcade perfect aside from a little censorship here and there. Thanks to the extra button on the controller you didn't need to put two controllers together for one player. Don't get me wrong, the NES conversion was really good even including some of the speech from the arcade game and I loved using two controllers the simulate the arcade game
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Video Gamers R Us. It's a small group and it's mainly me posting lol but we have fun and I do giveaways from time to time.
I'm currently 21 and this game is older than me, but I have so much nostalgia for it. I used to have a copy on my PS2 and I'd play with my twin brother and older sisters. We used to always quote this game and it's one of the first video games I ever beat.
There's a series on RU-vid called Joe Gagnes pro wrestling,he goes thru all the wrestling games released, it was my fav,till you came along.if you haven't seen it check it out,but ,I think you could do something similar, but with your spin,all the info on developers, and why and how,makes your videos very interesting, and I have a group of friends and colleagues worker's who would love it.your doing great man ,I hope people catch on.
Thank you for the kind words, I hope I catch on too. People seem to like my channel and I try to make it as informative as possible without making it boring. Thanks again
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries i agree. The snes version is fantastic even tho the gore was toned down a bit i still love it. Love the challenge. Apparently the game has 3 endings ive still to get the best ending where you find all secret rooms and all the keys. Been playing it loads on the snes even tho i have the arcade one but im really used to fire with the x y a b buttons instead of using the analog stick on the ps3 plus u have unlimited credits on the ps3. Anyways great game lots of fun. 😊
I'd love to see a part 2 of your video covering Total Carnage in full. The art, sound, and animated scenes are amazingly well done in that game and I always get a kick out of watching that evil dictator dude pounding his fist causing the screen to shake.
I never knew about the Pleasure Dome update. Got caught stealing quarters! Sorta reminds me of the message in Strider during the attract mode, "SIBERIAN WILDERNESS: NOBODY HAS EVER CLEARED THIS STAGE."
I found a genuine arcade cabinet in a UK seaside resort during 1996. It had been professionally reconditioned, almost looking like new. I asked the owner if he'd consider selling it, but it was a definite no. The SNES version is my console favourite by a long way.
I still remember the first day I saw this in my local arcade. I don’t think I played anything else for weeks. I still fire this and Total Carnage up all the time on the ps2.
DYK: Mark Turmell, Smash TV’s programmer, would later go on to create NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. Both the NES and SNES versions were developed by Beam Software, with Jamie Rivett as one of the programmers. Rivett would later join Midway as one of NBA Jam’s designers.
I find it difficult to imagine being able to fend off dozens of enemies without the ability to shoot in the opposite direction that youre running. That feature made this unique, even to this day.
Something I didn't notice at first is that the weapons you pick up are actually limited by ammo, not time. If you keep firing, they run out very quickly, so conserve ammo by aiming and firing more efficiently. The personal force-fields are not limited by time either, but by how many hits they take.
This is especially true of the bazooka. When you fire it, it goes in a straight line, killing EVERYTHING in its path. So most people just hold the right stick in whatever direction and boom-boom-boom-boom without realizing that you're just wasting shots. With the bazooka, you let the screen fill up with enemies and then shoot ONCE. Let them line up and shoot ONCE, again. You'll clear the entire screen with just 3-4 shots. ;^)
When I was a kid a classmate sold me the Game Gear version of Smash TV and Virtua Fighter Animation for five bucks. He said he didn't play them anymore. Later on he sold me Toki and Rygar for the Lynx too. I think that was for ten bucks and some movie I had. I think it was my copy of The Goonies. I hardly ever watched it so I was cool with it Anyway, I liked it but didn't love it. I'm now able to play better versions with a dual stick controller so that's nice and I've come to appreciate the game, and twin stick shooters, a lot more in the last decade or so
This game was far more fun than it had any business being. I love the modern-day homages to it. if I ever do become some Big Shot director, I'm making movies of Smash TV, Sinistar and gauntlet.
It's worth mentioning the SNES version has 20, not 30 max enemies, 30% less arena space, 30% slower running. The design is change and is botched by the Beam Software conversion house. The best version is the Genesis version in every metric. If you can ignore the black box, you will find having the full arena makes the game much more enjoyable and having the game arcade accurate is a better design choice than Beam's new ideas. Fire reverse with B and strafe by also holding C will see you through this game without issue. Trying to use an twin stick setup without twin sticks is a fools errand as you have 8 button combinations to perfect.
This game brings back so many memories and solidified midway games as heavy hitters in my mind, what I always think about when I watch these documentaries/history, I know these developers by name and face and if I seen them in public I probably would freak them out😆
A dedicated Smash is very hard to come by these days let alone cheap. I remember when these were around $400-500 fully working, no chance in that today unless it's dead
I preferred the version without the pleasure dome. It added to the sense of false accomplishment and general dystopian vibe. Like the dead winners in running man.
Types of games are so hard to play because the controls are always so bad. I used to think it was because the analog stick wasn't what they used and you only had the four directions but I played the DS version of geometry wars and that allowed you to aim in between the diagonals when you press the diagonal it would shoot from the cardinal direction all the way to the diagonal making it easier to hit your enemy. Also that game had touch screen controls which was the way better way to go.
The one constant is that whichever version I play I'm terrible at the game. It's a solid game although I always enjoyed Total Carnage that little bit more.
What's the best prebuilt fightstick to use for this game? Obviously, it needs two sticks that can be mapped for movement and fire direction and used simultaneously.
I still get this song stuck in my head constantly. In the video game remake world we live in this is an obvious choice. You could monetize it by letting people pay a quarter for a continue. The way God intended.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries I was a play tester for them. I remember we had an arcade with all the games they had converted. The guys there were really clever.
The Amiga Version had some interesting ideas, if you had two players on a Joystick each, pressing the ALT revered the Shooting Direction, and I think another button Locked your direction,, and I had a Dongle, I think that came with Amiga Bomberman (Dynablaster) that plugged into the Parallel port, and it gave two more joystick ports, so you could play 2player, with 4 sticks. Still SNES was the best home version
In call of duty Black ops if you pushed the triggers together you could break out of the chair on the main menu and walk over to a computer and play zork along with a zombie game like this. Never understood what was up with the invincible gorilla though. Maybe if harambe was invincible he'd still be with us.
Does anyone know if the mame version of this game can be played with one joystick since it is dual stick shooter game? Like if I have a bar top arcade can I configure to play it with one controller?
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries as an Englishman I'm probably a lot more familiar with the machine Check out the spectrum show if you already haven't I do agree the SNES is the best home conversion
Me and a friend of mine could beat Super Smash TV on the SNES but never found the Pleasure Dome. Was it in the game or not? The number one rule of the game to us was to stay out of the middle.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries That's crazy! I mean, I've encountered this game all over the freaking place, and that's just in my small area of central Pennsylvania.
